The Elder Scrolls 6 Needs to Address One Skyrim Build in Particular

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 19, 2025 15 Views 7 Min Read
The Elder Scrolls 6 Needs to Address One Skyrim Build in Particular



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Skyrim‘s leveling and combat designs were greatly improved on its predecessor’s, and allowed for a large amount of freedom for players in terms of the kinds of builds they wanted to create for their characters. Rather than having major and minor skills, and having character leveling relying on those skills, player characters instead level whenever any skill in Skyrim is improved. While this works in theory, in practice the gameplay encouraged a certain style of combat that players began defaulting to for a number of reasons.

This style of combat became known among players as the Stealth Archer, a strategy where the player specializes in Archery and Stealth skills, while almost entirely ignoring the other skill sets Skyrim offers, including most magic, heavy weapons and armor, and all other weapons. The Elder Scrolls 6 could include this, but to become an RPG with various functional builds, it needs to avoid this kind of build that’s so easily defaulted to that it becomes a meme. By looking at what makes the Stealth Archer so popular, The Elder Scrolls 6 can avoid this mistake.

The Elder Scrolls 6 logo with Tamriel Background

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The Elder Scrolls 6 Should Be More Like Oblivion Than Skyrim in One Key Area

Despite Skyrim being well-loved, The Elder Scrolls 6 could benefit from following Oblivion’s lead instead when it comes to a key story element.

Behind the Popularity of the Stealth Archer in Skyrim

One of the reasons the Stealth Archer has become so prolific in Skyrim is because of the dragons in Skyrim, as one of the easiest ways to force the airborne dragons from the sky before a certain point in the main storyline is by shooting at them through archery. Getting better at archery and fighting dragons meant using a bow more often, which also necessitated using stealth more. The Stealth Archer build often develops organically, rather than players actively choosing the build.

Another reason for the Stealth Archer build is that bows are some of the best weapons in Skyrim, with Auriel’s Bow from Dawnguard being incredibly powerful and only useful to archers. Arrows in Skyrim have no carry weight, and rarely run out. The Stealth Archer build is easy to play, viable on any difficulty, and the skill tree perks are unlocked early in gameplay. Even if a player has plans to create a character with a different build, they often default to the Stealth Archer because of the build’s sheer efficiency, giving rise to the meme.

Once players are aware of the tendency to fall into the Stealth Archer build, it can become difficult to avoid playing it. The Elder Scrolls 6 needs to make other builds more viable, and it can do so by improving its spellcasting and other combat systems. While the Stealth and Archery systems in Skyrim were clearly improvements over their counterparts in Oblivion, spellcasting did not get the same treatment in Skyrim, and was oversimplified to the point that it became clunky and difficult to use.

Another way The Elder Scrolls 6 could remove the tendency to create the Stealth Archer is by properly balancing combat and improving enemy AI. One of the appeals of the Stealth Archer is the ease that this build can clear a dungeon without even alerting a single enemy. Smarter enemies in The Elder Scrolls 6 who realize they’re being shot, and who can detect an assassin in their midst, would force players to adapt to other builds. This would also force players to dip into other skill trees such as different magic schools. Oblivion allowed players to use magic while holding a weapon in both hands, which should make a return in The Elder Scrolls 6, and encourage players to invest more in magic.

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